Coaching 310: Throwing On-ramp program

Posted on by David Navarre

Here in Asheville, we have lost some time that we had intended to use as an on-ramp to velocity improvement. The hurricane devastated many towns and neighborhoods in our region, but we expect to be back underway in the next few months. Many of the local fields have been badly damaged, so we will likely have to improvise and travel more than we would normally.

As such, we plan on offering an on-ramp program to local high school players to get them ready for their tryouts and spring seasons. The greatest hazard to a young arm when looking at high school teams is that you’re trying to impress the coach on Day 1. Without a proper on-ramp, you could quite easily start the season with an injury. The best preventative method is to on-ramp yourself in the 4 weeks prior to those tryouts. For this, we turn to the Driveline Skills that Scale: The Complete Youth Baseball Training Manual.

We’re a twice-a-week team practice group, usually doing our practices on Mondays and Thursdays. This fits well with our plans for an On-Ramp, Powered by Driveline. The first practice date for NCHSA in 2025 is Wednesday, February 12th. So, we need to walk back four weeks, finishing on Monday, February 10th. Thus, we start on January 16th. That fits well with the ABCA Convention on January 2nd to 5th in Washington, DC.

Equipment

For the on-ramp, each player ought to have their own set of equipment or share it with a partner. This way, they can bring it to both team practices and do two other practices with that partner each week.

1 pair of 2.5kg wrist weights

1 set of plyo balls (Driveline youth set): Green 1000g, Blue 450g, Red 225g, Yellow 150g, Gray 100g

1 Jaeger bands

Workout Types

Recovery: This is our most common workout, used to get us started and repeated in between team workouts. It’s about 50 throws and should never exceed 50% intensity.

You can download a PDF of the plyo drills or watch the videos.

  • Warm Up
    • J-Bands: 10 of each of the 8 exercises (download PDF here)
      • Forward & Reverse Flys
      • Elevated Internal and External Rotations
      • Tricep Extensions with Pronation
      • Bicep Curls with Supination
    • Wrist weights: 10 of each of the 4 exercises (PDF here)
      • Pronation Swings (Spill the Cup)
      • Two Arm Throws
      • Cuban/Gorilla Press
      • Pivot Pickoff
  • Training
    • Plyo Reverse Throws: 10 each with Blue (450g) and Green (1000g)
    • Plyo Pivot Picks: 10 each with Blue (450g) and Red (225g)
    • Catch play: 30 throws with baseball, not to exceed 50% intensity

Hybrid B: In our on-ramp, this is actually the most common team workout. It’s basically double the workload of the Recovery workouts, with a bit more intensity — 70%. This is used to slowly ramp our arms up to the intensity we’re going to need for regular practices, bullpens and games. Driveline labels it “Hybrid B”, so we’ll stick with that, even though it is the most common workout in all Driveline youth throwing programs. Somewhere between 90 and 120 throws, up to 70% intensity

  • Warm Up
    • J-Bands: 10 of each of the 8 exercises
    • Wrist weights: 10 of each of the 4 exercises
  • Training
    • Plyo Reverse Throws: 10 each with Blue (450g) and Green (1000g)
    • Plyo Pivot Picks: 10 each with Blue (450g) and Red (225g)
    • Plyo Roll Ins: 10 each with Red (225g)
    • Plyo Step Backs: 2 each with Red (225g), Yellow (150g), and Grey (100g)
    • Plyo Walking Windups: 2 each with Red (225g), Yellow (150g), and Grey (100g)
    • Long toss: 40-70 throws with baseball, building to 70% intensity (check Long toss distances, keeping that 70% in mind)

Hybrid A: This is the most intense workout of the On Ramp, so we just do it once, near the conclusion of the cycle. Total throws are still 90 to 120, but our intensity can go up to 90%.

  • Warm Up
    • J-Bands: 10 of each of the 8 exercises
    • Wrist weights: 10 of each of the 4 exercises
  • Training
    • Plyo Reverse Throws: 10 each with Blue (450g) and Green (1000g)
    • Plyo Pivot Picks: 10 each with Blue (450g) and Red (225g)
    • Plyo Roll Ins: 10 each with Red (225g)
    • Plyo Step Backs: 2 each with Red (225g), Yellow (150g), and Grey (100g)
    • Plyo Walking Windups: 2 each with Red (225g), Yellow (150g), and Grey (100g)
    • Long toss: 20-30 throws with baseball, building to 90% intensity
    • Compression Throws: 5-6 throws with baseball, 90% intensity

Schedule

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
16 Jan
Recovery
with team		17 Jan
OFF		18 Jan
Hybrid B
with team
19 Jan
OFF		20 Jan
Recovery
with team		21 Jan
OFF		22 Jan
OFF		23 Jan
Hybrid B
with team		24 Jan
OFF		25 Jan
Recovery
with partner
26 Jan
OFF		27 Jan
Hybrid B
with team		28 Jan29 Jan
Recovery
with partner		30 Jan
Hybrid B
with team		31
OFF		1 Feb
Recovery
with partner
2 Feb
OFF		3 Feb
Hybrid B
with team		4 Feb
OFF		5 Feb
Recovery
with partner		6 Feb
Hybrid A
with team		7 Feb
OFF		8 Feb
Recovery
with partner
9 Feb
OFF		10 Feb
Hybrid B
with team		11 Feb12 Feb
School team
practices
start

Get Training!

I’m very much looking forward to running this program in the new year and I’m sharing in hopes that others use it for their programs as well. Note that this program is the Driveline 13-14u program. The 9-12u program is a little less intense – 3 days instead of 4 (No Wednesdays) and no Green (1000g) plyo reverse throws. I heartily encourage everyone to purchase a copy of the Driveline Skills that Scale: The Complete Youth Baseball Training Manual. There’s loads more content like this as well as mentoring on how to coach, how to plan, and how to develop your players.

Teaching and learning via @FlatgroundApp

Posted on by David Navarre

When I was a kid, if you wanted to learn from watching someone pitch, you had to sit close to the TV and hope you could pick up what they were doing from the centerfield bleachers. If your coach wanted to demonstrate, he needed one of the kids to go through his motion live, in front of the rest of the team. If someone wanted to be noticed, they had to pitch in front of a scout who wanted to pay attention. We don’t have to do it that way in the 21st century.

I’ve become a Twitter addict in the last year. I’d started on Twitter a few years ago to promote my software blogging and speaking, then, I decided I wanted to blog and tweet about horse racing. I have separate blogs on software development, military history, horseracing and this one, on baseball. So, as the writing on each topic got more extensive and my desire for interaction got higher, I added a new twitter handle for each: @LostInXPages, @WereNotLost, @PunterNavarre and @OldMensBaseball. Each has a separate focus and mostly separate community (some of my blog posts or interests bleed across them, but I try to keep them focused).

Now that we’re in the 21st century, I can watch 50 different guys at different stages of development. Each does some things right, some things wrong. Even if the only thing you do is watch these videos and read the comments on @FlatgroundApp, you’ll learn a lot.

Sample Pocket radar
Sophomore Julien Hernandez in the middle of his delivery on an 81 mph pitch

Flatground is the brilliant idea of the @PitchingNinja, Rob Friedman, to get exposure and advice for high school, junior college, college and free agent pitchers who might otherwise slip through the cracks. Not everyone can afford to attend showcases. Not everyone has a scout attend their game and pay attention to them. With the time and money squeezes everywhere, Rob set up @FlatgroundApp for those players to submit their videos to get noticed.

I use Flatground for two purposes – to learn how to pitch better and to teach others to pitch better.

I’ve put in a lot of study over the last few years trying to learn to pitch. I’ve hired a pitching coach. I’ve bought books. I’ve watched a bunch of YouTube videos. I’ve gotten lessons from Rick Knapp during our Ponce de Leon spring training. (Any failures in my mechanics are entirely my fault, not those of any who’ve tried teaching this old dog new tricks.) Getting Knappy’s advice has always provided the most gain, but I only get to see him once a year and he’s dealing with 30 or 40 guys who also want to learn. Flatground has tied in nicely with the books I’ve been reading, allowing me to see, in slow motion and stop-motion 50 different guys pitching. Watching guys open that lead shoulder too soon, or not scap loading, or striding inefficiently really helps one identify their own flaws.

So, when watching those videos, I’ve apply my experience coaching (negligible), my book learnin’ (useful foundation), the coaching I’ve gotten and my limited experience with pitching. Sometimes, I can see the flaws in someone’s delivery. When it’s unclear, I can simply compare videos of two different pitchers and point out to the one who needs help what the other guy is doing better — and point them to the video for help. I’m basic and I can only help with the worst flaws, but it’s going to help me in my live, in-person coaching.

I put in my order this morning for my Pocket Radar to use with the Smart Coach app so that I can start doing some scouting for Flatground. It might help some kids get noticed, but it will certainly get me an opportunity to see more guys pitching.

So, if you’re in the DC metro area and want a video to get onto @FlatgroundApp, let me know. I’ll be reaching out to some coaches once I get the technology figured out. I’ll even be taking it with me when I go on vacation in Asheville, NC in April (UNC-A, here I come!), since I’ll have some downtime while Melissa is taking a French cooking class.